Post layout

The present-day visitor to Fort De Soto can walk through the area
where many buildings once stood, and imagine life on the post.
The original building foundations have been located by volunteers and
park
staff using the 1911 blueprints. The footers or brick piers that you
see along the trail were reconstructed on the original foundations by
the park staff and boy scouts working on their eagle projects. These
foundations were buried in the sand and required excavation before the
brick piers could be reconstructed. The brick road and portions of
the concrete curbs and sidewalks are original.

Post buildings were constructed between early 1900 and 1906. There were 29 buildings
including a 100-foot-long barracks, a hospital, a stable, a guardhouse, a shop for
blacksmiths and carpenters, an administration office, a mess hall and kitchen, a
bakehouse, and a storehouse. There were
brick roads, concrete sidewalks, and narrow-gauge railway tracks
for moving materials around the post.

The buildings are gone now, but many photographs remain. Some examples:

All of the
buildings were wood with slate roofs. The total
cost of the post structures amounted to $120,674.55. This did not include the expense of
the water and sewer systems. The water for the post was pumped from an artesian well (500
feet deep, with a capacity of 150 gallons per minute) into a 60,000-gallon tank, elevated
75 feet, and distributed through pipes to the various buildings. This water was only used
for bathing, flushing toilets, and other such activities. Water for drinking was supplied
by thirteen tanks, or cisterns. Each tank had a capacity of 6,000 gallons. The system
was installed in 1901 and cost $17,754. The post had a modern sewer system, which drained
into the Gulf of Mexico and Tampa Bay through 6- and 8-inch pipes, and
was installed at a cost of $3,426.

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